05-08-2005, 10:42 PM
Happy Mothers day, folks !!
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/lo...a/8629246.htm1c
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Flowers, dinner, and a blessing of Hindu gods
By Dan Hardy
Inquirer Staff Writer
On Saturday, Savita Patel got the usual Mother's Day treatment from her three children: flowers, dinner, and a gift certificate to a spa.
Yesterday, Patel, a Langhorne resident who was born in India, was honored in a very different way.
She, with 50 other mothers, was the focus of a Mathru puja - a prayer for mothers - at the Chinmaya Mission Tri-State Center, a Hindu temple in Langhorne.
During the hourlong religious ceremony presided over by Swami Siddhananda, a Hindu teacher who lives at the temple, the children knelt in front of their mothers. They symbolically washed their mothers' feet with a sprinkle of water, gave them each a gold coin and fruit, and anointed their foreheads with a vermilion paste.
The children bowed their heads to the floor in reverence and were in turn blessed by their mothers, who touched their foreheads with grains of rice that had been soaked in oil and turmeric, a gingerlike herb. There was candlelighting and a song chanted in Sanskrit, an ancient Indian language that the Hindu holy texts are written in.
The ceremony was "a chance to show your mom how much you appreciate her, but in a more traditional way," said Savita Patel's daughter Amika, a senior at Neshaminy High School. "It's not just gift-giving."
Her mother agreed. The other Mother's Day treats were welcome, she said, "but this is something extra-special to me."
Members of the Langhorne temple, a converted house on Bridgetown Pike, said there was no exact equivalent to Mother's Day in India. Yesterday's ceremony was adapted by Swami Chinmayananda, the founder of Chinmaya Mission, from ceremonies that honor the Hindu gods.
"Mother is next to the God" in importance, said Bensalem resident Ramesh Choksi, one of the board members of the mission.
In Hindu prayer ceremonies, "usually, we invoke the Gods to the seat of honor and offer our respect," said Nagaraj, a temple member from King of Prussia who goes by one name. "In this case, we invoke the mother to the seat of honor and offer her our respect."
The words in the Sanskrit chant that the children sang to their mothers bore out that sentiment: "By mother's blessings alone men become worshipful in this world and happy in the other world," it said in part. "He who sees God in his own mother, he alone sees Him everywhere as well."
Hari Pillai, 21, a Drexel University student from Upper Darby, said that it was important to him, and especially to his mother, to add the religious element to Mother's Day.
"You can say, 'Mom, have a good day,' but you can also pray for her, too," he said. "You need to connect with her more spiritually... it's adding Hinduism to make it more special."<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/lo...a/8629246.htm1c
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Flowers, dinner, and a blessing of Hindu gods
By Dan Hardy
Inquirer Staff Writer
On Saturday, Savita Patel got the usual Mother's Day treatment from her three children: flowers, dinner, and a gift certificate to a spa.
Yesterday, Patel, a Langhorne resident who was born in India, was honored in a very different way.
She, with 50 other mothers, was the focus of a Mathru puja - a prayer for mothers - at the Chinmaya Mission Tri-State Center, a Hindu temple in Langhorne.
During the hourlong religious ceremony presided over by Swami Siddhananda, a Hindu teacher who lives at the temple, the children knelt in front of their mothers. They symbolically washed their mothers' feet with a sprinkle of water, gave them each a gold coin and fruit, and anointed their foreheads with a vermilion paste.
The children bowed their heads to the floor in reverence and were in turn blessed by their mothers, who touched their foreheads with grains of rice that had been soaked in oil and turmeric, a gingerlike herb. There was candlelighting and a song chanted in Sanskrit, an ancient Indian language that the Hindu holy texts are written in.
The ceremony was "a chance to show your mom how much you appreciate her, but in a more traditional way," said Savita Patel's daughter Amika, a senior at Neshaminy High School. "It's not just gift-giving."
Her mother agreed. The other Mother's Day treats were welcome, she said, "but this is something extra-special to me."
Members of the Langhorne temple, a converted house on Bridgetown Pike, said there was no exact equivalent to Mother's Day in India. Yesterday's ceremony was adapted by Swami Chinmayananda, the founder of Chinmaya Mission, from ceremonies that honor the Hindu gods.
"Mother is next to the God" in importance, said Bensalem resident Ramesh Choksi, one of the board members of the mission.
In Hindu prayer ceremonies, "usually, we invoke the Gods to the seat of honor and offer our respect," said Nagaraj, a temple member from King of Prussia who goes by one name. "In this case, we invoke the mother to the seat of honor and offer her our respect."
The words in the Sanskrit chant that the children sang to their mothers bore out that sentiment: "By mother's blessings alone men become worshipful in this world and happy in the other world," it said in part. "He who sees God in his own mother, he alone sees Him everywhere as well."
Hari Pillai, 21, a Drexel University student from Upper Darby, said that it was important to him, and especially to his mother, to add the religious element to Mother's Day.
"You can say, 'Mom, have a good day,' but you can also pray for her, too," he said. "You need to connect with her more spiritually... it's adding Hinduism to make it more special."<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->